Nash announces for Congress

Former Dorchester County Sheriff Ray Nash announced Tuesday he intends to run for the First Congressional District seat vacated by Sen. Tim Scott.Nash is currently working as a criminal justice adviser to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, according to his press release. He will resign his position to run for office, he said.“Due to the recent attacks on our Constitutional freedoms, I was gravely concerned that I would no longer recognize my country upon my return," Nash said. "Then I realized I had a clear opportunity to do something about it by running for Congress."Nash served as Dorchester County Sheriff from 1997 through 2008.He decided against running for a fourth term after a turbulent few years.County Council, with whom he often battled for money, ordered a forensic audit of the sheriff’s office, which eventually led to a guilty plea by Jail Capt. Arnold Pastor on a felony embezzlement charge.Pastor stole $363,000 of inmate funds.When Sheriff L.C. Knight took office in 2009, he told council that 10 former sheriff’s office employees, including Nash, kept their firearms as “parting gifts” when they left, costing the county $4,500 to replace the guns.He initially reported that only retiring employees are allowed to keep their weapons. Later, when it became clear there was no policy, council voted to create a policy outlining which employees would be allowed to keep their weapons and to ask the 10 former employees to return their weapons.Nash is also the founder of the Police Dynamics Institute, which trains law enforcement with the leadership principles of “dynamics.”Nash said he’s qualified to serve because of his 34 years in law enforcement, 20 years of executive leadership, 12 years as sheriff and foreign service experience in Afghanistan.Nash cited moral and Constitutional crises including fiscal irresponsibility, “unbridled government expansion” and threats to the Second Amendment.

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